Chapter Sixty-One A God’s Chat, and Master’s Care for the Young (Patreon)

Ivy shifted on her feet. She had been talking with the Goddess Erosi for a while now. Feeling a bit deflated, she asked, “Do I have to?”

“If you are to grow and stand beside your daughter like you want to? I’m afraid so. If taking that step is hard for you, I can help you take it.”

She sighed as her shoulders slumped further. Ivy had picked up the idol since she had finally decided to try changing her patron. Thankfully, it proved easier than the stories but that was because her previous Patron was that cursed Dragon Zemoria. Since Zemoria was on the cusp, and hadn’t yet actually ascended she lacked the authority of a god or goddess that had ascended. Therefore it was simple for Erosi to accept her, and it was easy for her to pick Erosi. Her own daughter was favored by the goddess and she honestly wanted to fix the growing rift between them.

“I uh, guess.”

“Part of the problem you have, comes from you. You are having a hard time accepting her wanting to wear less. That issue you have is making it harder for you to properly connect with your daughter. What Zemoria did to you wasn’t right, but hiding from it will never solve the problem. You want to deal with that power she forced on you? I suggest you confront it.”

Still she was afraid, but she had to admit. Erosi had a point. She was hiding and running from what Zemoria had done to her. More to the point, past her would never have dreamed of wearing clothes. It was quite ironic that now she was afraid to go naked. With a sigh, she finally said, “I’ll, um... take the help.”

The goddess smiled and snapped her fingers. With that the space dissolved and she found herself back in the dungeon. A blue box filling her vision.

Congrats!

You have a new Patron!

Erosi, God of Pleasure

The Following Boons have been granted:
Boosted Magic Growth
Boosted Growth of Pleasure Related Skills and Magic
Vastly Improved Sensitivity
Greatly Boosted Libido

The God of Pleasure has noted your plight. To Assist your growth the following temporary boon has been granted.
Equipment Lock: Locks all clothing and armor-related slots. Force set to empty. All clothing currently equipped has been unequipped.

I wish you luck facing your fears. Now that you can no longer run from that power. I suggest you learn to control it. So that it doesn’t control your life. I’ve done what I can to make it more easily controlled. Again Good Luck!

She blinked and glanced down at herself. Ivy could already feel the cool air against her skin. She could tell that she was already naked, and with that last boon there was no changing that. For a moment she just sat there, not sure what to do or think. Then something broke, the waters flowed. Slumping against the ground she simply cried as she recalled all the reasons for why she had simply stopped going naked. Why she had run from that dragon, and now she had to face the worst thing of all. Her damn status, the build that she had blindly ruined by listening to that dragon like a fool.

Reki and Nelli followed their master down the hall. As he led them into a part of his home that they didn’t often get to visit. It is usually forbidden for the pets to be in this part of the transformed mansion. Nelli figured it must be okay since they had been brought here by him personally.

Reaching a door, Mastar Asar paused and turned to them. “I don’t normally show this to pets. Nelli I expect you to be discreet about what you see. I figured you might want to assist your sister, who I have selected to be a maid.”

Nelli blinked, “I understand.” She paused wondering if she was allowed to ask questions.

“Feel free to ask questions. A good pet knows when to ask a question and when not.”

She responded, “A pet should never ask a question without her master’s permission. Even if she needs clarification.”

“For the regular pet, yes, but Nelli, you are not a regular pet. Your sister gets to be a maid, but you? I have chosen for you to be my head pet. You will help me manage the other pets. It also means you get more of my personal attention. Consider the position a reward for your services. It also means I expect you to ask questions, but try not to ask too many.”

Nelli smiled and felt a surge of pride. Her Master had recognized her! “I won’t! It would be improper of me to ask more questions than I need to.”

“Glad you understand. Now, is there anything you want to ask?”

“There is. Why did you pick my sister for a maid?”

He chuckled, “And here I thought you would ask about your duties.”

“Are you not about to explain those?” she asked rhetorically.

He laughed, “Glad to see you aren’t wasting your questions. Now, your sister? I picked her because she has no prior experience to taint her view. It will make it easier for her to properly learn her role.”

She nodded and her master opened the door. They followed him inside where they were greeted with the sight of the nursery. Like most of the rooms, the walls were alive. Moving tentacles served to monitor the young girls who were laid out in raised ‘beds.’ These ‘beds’ were made of a dark fleshy material with raised walls that looked like thousands of fine tentacles weaved together. The cushion was a fleshy pad that the naked babies rested upon.

As she looked inside the nearest one, she noted fleshy little bulbs releasing some kind of mist. Curious, she slipped a hand inside. Finding it warm. Inside she saw a young face looking up at her. No sound came from the girl but it looked like she was throwing a tantrum. A nearby bulb sprayed a different mist in her face and a moment later she calmed.

She glanced back at her master. “Welcome to the nursery. Don’t worry too much about the kids here. These are the ones that need the least attention. I expect you to only bother checking on them about once a day. Feel free to skip a day as well. I won’t mind.”

Her sister nodded, “Understood.”

Nelli nodded, “So we don’t have to be that vigilant with watching these girls?”

The master replied, “The care pods will take care of their needs. They keep the infants calm and docile. Not to mention they make sure they get fed. I feed them on a schedule, no exceptions.”

Glancing back to that infant she had looked in on. “So what about that girl that seemed to be throwing a tantrum?”

He shrugged, “Ah nothing to worry about. She probably thought she was hungry or something. She isn’t scheduled to be fed for another six hours. Ignore that.”

Nelli nodded and her sister listened. She didn’t know anything about infant nutrition, so she trusted her master was making the right call.

Then he spoke, “If you do see them throwing a tantrum, give em a spanking. The pods will calm them, but I’d rather they be properly punished for them. Also, report any tantrums you see to me.”

“Understood.”

Nelli was curious. “So is anyone scheduled to be fed now?”

“Not right this second, but the girl in bed seven is scheduled to be fed in fifteen minutes. I can just adjust her schedule so you can watch. This way.”

She followed the master down towards bed seven. It was a little further in the nursery. There was a small girl there. She was lying quite peacefully in the pod. The two sisters looked into it and watched as a pair of tentacles raised her into a new position. A new tentacle emerged from the wall, with a nipple-like tip. It dropped towards her mouth as it started leaking a white fluid. The little girl spotted the nipple and eagerly latched on to suckle. As she did the master spoke. “The feeding tentacles are supplied mainly by my pets who can lactate. When you milk yourselves, you add milk to the supplies for the nursery but don’t worry about drinking it yourself. Full grown pets get priority for all resources. I’ll just ration out what is left to the little ones in the nursery and if there isn’t enough they can starve for a day or two. It won’t be a problem.”

Nelli watched the girl eat for a moment longer before she asked, “What if there still isn’t enough and they have been starving for a day or two?”

“That’s not for you to worry about, but if you really must know. I’ll make milk if they absolutely need it. Not before. As it’s too costly and wasteful to spend resources on making milk when I can just harvest it from the pets.”

Nelli nodded along as she watched the tentacle withdraw. She hadn’t been eating very long and she must have wanted more as she tried reaching for the tentacle. A moment later a tentacle slapped across the hand, hard. She could hear the smack. That was likely to leave a mark. Her face scrunched and she tried to wail. Thankfully she could no longer cry, so only blessed silence came from her throat.

The master commented, “Sometimes they throw a tantrum after a feeding. Often when they think they didn’t get enough milk. The proper response is to give them a good smacking till they calm.”

She watched as a pair of new tentacles extended and started whacking her hard across the belly. It didn’t look very gentle and she watched it. Taking notes. “I thought you were supposed to be gentle with babies?”

“Nah they are only babies. They can take a little rough handling and they can be easily fixed too.”

She nodded. “Got that, it’s fine to be rough with them.”

“Just don’t be too rough. They are resilient but only to a point. I can revive them if they die but it is much easier to fix a damaged one than a dead one. Understood?”

Both of them turned and said. “We understand.”

The loud smacking noises stopped. Nelli glanced back and noted that the little girl seemed to have calmed. That was good. She had a number of raised welts across her belly and thighs now. They looked rather painful too. Hopefully she would learn to not throw tantrums.

They moved on and they were drawn towards another bed. Looking in she saw another young girl. A smaller girl, definitely younger than the last one. She was rather peacefully sleeping as well. Several tentacles suddenly moved from the walls and rolled her over. Presenting the back of her head. A larger tentacle presented itself from the wall, a wicked and sharp looking point at its end. It angled itself over the back of her head rather menacingly and with a sudden sharp movement it pierced the back of her head.

Nelli was curious and looked up to ask. Only her master anticipated the question. “I’m altering her brain. Not all of the infants receive brain modifications. Just those I think are special. I want you to watch this one more closely than the others. Make sure she gets enough to eat, even nurse her yourselves if milk is short.”

“Altering her brain?”

“Babies grow too quickly to bother with most forms of modification. In her case, I am altering her growth.” he said.

Nelli glanced back as the baby spasmed in her bed. It was hard to tell what was being done to her brain. Seeing as she couldn’t just look inside. She was lucky to have been deemed special so soon. Nelli glanced at Reki and noted that her sister clearly planned to give this one special attention as desired. Glancing back she watched as the tentacle slowly began to retract. As it pulled out, the little wound in the back of her head closed over.

A moment later several tentacles rolled her back over. Revealing that she was awake now. Calmly gazing up at them, and not doing much else. In fact her eyes seemed a little dull. “She seems remarkably well-behaved considering what just happened to her. Surprised she didn’t throw a tantrum.”

He chuckled, “Brain modification is a multistage process. The first stage is to prepare the brain for modification. There are several ways to do this but the cheapest way is to simply destroy sections of the brain. As a side effect of having parts of her brain killed, she will no longer grow and will be much more docile and cooperative. I went ahead and damaged extra parts so as to make sure she will be docile. Watch.”

A tentacle emerged and then lashed the girl across the belly. She didn’t even react and it was hard enough to make a sharp crack and leave a welt. That was quite impressive. She said so.

“For now she will need time to recover. Her brain isn’t ready for the next step. Just keep an eye on her for me. Monitor her behavior for me and report when she shows signs of being ready for another session.”

“And what signs would we be looking for?”

“She’ll start to become more active when she is ready. Now we have spent enough time in the nursery. Time to go show you the older girls.”

Nelli nodded and followed out of the room. As she did she watched another of the pods spraying out the mist. Master hadn’t explained much about them, but it was obvious what they were for. They did far more than keep them comfortable. She thought it nice of the master to give such low value creatures as babies such nice beds to rest in. Very nice indeed. She listened as he told her, “Now these older girls will require far more attention. They are also more valuable than a baby is. So they get a greater resource allocation and you are to devote extra time to them when needed. Take anything you want from the babies if it means meeting their requirements.”

“It’s so nice of you to give the babies such nice accommodations given how worthless a baby is.”

Master didn’t respond. As they were led down the hall to another room. It had the same dark living walls as the nursery and other places. Yet it was much larger with far more space than the nursery. There was a large central room where a few kids were wandering around. On the sides of the room were a number of alcoves. Glancing in one, she noticed a number of cushioned shelves. It wasn’t as nice as what she got as a pet, but she realized these cramped shelves were their beds. “These are the sleeping arrangements for toddlers and girls not yet old enough for pet training. Well the full training yet. Most of your focus as a maid will be on these girls here.”

“Anything special my sister needs to know?”

“Like the babies feel free to be rough with them. Spank them, stick them with needles. Whatever. They aren’t allowed to play, either. When they are awake, they are to be focused on their lessons. Don’t let them sleep during those. If they try, hurt them. They shouldn’t be asking you for anything either and if they do ask for something, punish them. I’ll give you sleeping and feeding schedules for them as well. Make sure they stick to them, right down to the amount allotted.

Nelli listened along and found one girl sleeping on a shelf. She recognized her and recalled that her mother mentioned she was sick. “What about when they get sick?”

“Monitor them but keep them on their schedules. They are only young kids after all. More valuable than a baby yes, but still young. On a different note, they aren’t yet ready for proper belly rubs, but when they are good or get things right during lessons I would like you to give them a rub.”

Nelli nodded, “Reward them when good and punish them when bad. Got that.”

The master pointed at a room behind a closed door. “This over here is the bathroom. Access is to be strictly controlled. No exceptions. Each girl will have three scheduled trips to the bathroom a day and it’s to be closed at night. All girls are to be on their shelves at night. No girl will be allowed to sleep during the day.”

Looking around it seemed they weren’t following their schedules. “That doesn’t seem to be the case.”

“Well I don’t have any maids on duty to watch them right now. It’s to be expected. I’ll ignore this breach for now.”

“You are quite the kind master. They are lucky to have you caring for them.”

“And they will be even better off once I have a few maids keeping an eye on them. Reki I’ll send a few girls to you once you have things worked out. I expect you to train them. Until then, you will have to rely on Nelli helping out, but don’t worry, I have plenty of belly rubs for the both of you if you do good!”

Both of them began to wag their tails. Belly rubs!? So exciting and all they had to do was watch some kids for the master. It seemed most of their time would be here. The master wanted them to give more attention to them. As they were more important than the babies and the little ones in the nursery seemed well cared for by the pods.

“So out of curiosity, how long will these girls be in this room? When do they move on to pet in-training status?”

He chuckled and pulled her into an embrace. As he started rubbing her belly, he said, “Good question. It varies based on growth rate but for humans, they leave the nursery around two. By then they should be old enough to walk. Most won’t be, but it shouldn’t take long to teach them. They will stay here for the next six years and then they get to leave as pets in-training. As a pet in-training they will be attached to an older pet and given all of the perks of being a pet. Outside of proper belly rubs that is.”

“Of course, they wouldn’t be ready for it.”

They talked for a few minutes more and then made their way out of the room. Nelli had certainly learned a lot about how to properly care for children. They needed much less attention than she had thought. She was looking forward to trying her hand at it and impressing her master. She could tell that Reki was jumping in her skin. This was going to be fun.